Unmanned US spacecraft returns after 7-month trip

By ASSOCIATED PRESS

California: The US Air Force’s secrecy-shrouded X-37B unmanned spaceplane returned to Earth early Friday after more than seven months in orbit on a classified mission, officials said.

The winged craft autonomously landed at at Vandenberg Air Force Base on the California coast 130 miles northwest of Los Angeles, Vandenburg spokesman Jeremy Eggers said.

“It’s very exciting,” Eggers said of the 1:16 a.m. PST landing. The X-37B was launched by an Atlas 5 rocket from Cape Canaveral, Florida, on April 22, with a maximum mission duration of 270 days. Also known as the Orbital Test Vehicle, the Boeing-built spacecraft was originally a NASA project before being taken over by the military. The Air Force has not said whether it carried anything in its cargo bay, but insists the primary purpose of the mission was to test the craft itself.

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There should be public punishment with removal of some appendages /limbs of such people to disc

SAH at Jan 19, 2011 04:39

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